50 MAJOR C. R. CONDER, D.C.L., R.E., 
emblem of country, and this is probable; because it is very 
like the emblems used for country or mountain in Egyptian 
in the earliest cuneiform and in Chinese. I also found this 
emblem to be exactly like the Cypriote syllable mi or me. 
Now in Akkadian ma means “country,” according to Lenor- 
mant, Delitszch, Bertin, and Pinches; and besides this the 
word ma, me, or mu, means “earth,” “land,” “home,” in 
several yet living Turanian languages. 
(5) Wouid stand evidently for er, but the meaning of the 
sign is doubtful pictorially. 
(6) A series of four strokes. It must have the value me, 
which in Medic, and in Akkadian too, is the plural. Now in 
Egypt three strokes stand for the plural, and in cuneiform 
the plural sign seems originally to have been a series of 
strokes. We thus obtain a very valuable sign to aid us in 
deciphering other Hittite texts. 
The hieroglyphs therefore read :— 
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) 
Varkn = "dim "= ku) =) ) “ma = Yee omnes 
Tarku - dim king land Er - me. 
Tarkudim is probably a personal name, like the later 
Tarkondimotos, as Professor Sayce has pointed out. 
The fact that the bi-lingual can be read by aid of the 
Turanian languages is a very strong argument in favour of 
the correctness of the system, but it is not stronger than that 
afforded by the recovery of 100 words (as already explained), 
because no amount of ingenuity could lead to such a result 
were the language not really that supposed. 
We may now turn attention to the seals and cylinders from 
Asia Minor and elsewhere which belong to the same civilisa- 
tion. These cylinders are supposed to have been worn as 
charms, as were also the seal-rings, and they generally present 
mythological subjects, winged figures, bull-headed genii, 
hawk-headed, ram-headed, lion-headed gods, and demons 
represented as mythical monsters. The first thing which is 
noted in looking at the dozen seals and cylinders recovered as 
yet in Asia Minor is that in character they are exactly like 
the Akkadian cylinders brought from Babylonia, and we now 
see why, since the race and civilisation were the same or very 
closely similar. 
A seal has been published which I also find to throw much 
light on the Hittite, though it has only three emblems upon 
it. The first is a star, beneath this a lozenge, and beneath 
this an eagle. The star is the old cuneiform for “ god ” (an), 
